'Dibs' Returns With First Big Snowfall'

(CBS) — This week’s snowfall has brought back an old Chicago tradition: the placement of chairs, cones, milk crates and other junk to save curbside parking spots in neighborhoods.

WBBM’s Mike Krauser hit the streets on Thursday.

The people who claim “dibs” on parking spots say they worked hard to clear them, and they defend the practice.

City Hall frowns upon it, but no mayor has ever stepped in the prevent it.

Some streets end up looking like winter block parties, with all of the chairs. WBBM also saw two-gallon buckets, two-by-fours, boxes and a container of antifreeze used to mark excavated parking spaces.

“I love it, it’s goofy. Sometimes you see the whole street just lined with the most random things,” said one motorist, Michael, who was placing orange cones to protect the Bridgeport neighborhood spot he was saving.

People who disregard the place-holder items do so at their vehicle’s peril. “Sometimes things can happen,” Michael says.

The practice is not unique to Chicago. They do it in Boston, too.

Mike KrauserMike Krauser has been a reporter, anchor, producer, writer, managing editor and news director during a career that started in Chicago in the late...More fromMike Krauser